“Fight!”
A booming voice declared the start of the battle, but neither of the combatants moved an inch. Bishmal had always been the type to charge in without hesitation, and Albert surely had the upper hand in this situation—yet both of them stayed right where they were.
“Ngh!” A bitter expression crossed on Bishmal’s face as he realized that he’d frozen up when he ought to have been moving. The impossibility of the situation had perplexed him to the point that he hadn’t launched into his golden combo.
Bishmal had disregarded checking the brackets to eliminate distractions, but that had ended up working against him.
Having lost the opportunity to strike immediately, he chose to wait and see what would happen instead of charging in. This unexpected situation had almost made him lose sight of himself.
Albert, on the other hand, was completely silent and showed no emotion in his expression. It was as though his face was carved from metal, betraying not a single one of his thoughts.
Maintaining the silence, Albert began walking toward Bishmal.
At first glance, he looked completely open to attacks, but a closer look revealed that his movements were smooth and stable.
Walking like a skilled martial artist or a precision machine, Albert closed the distance between them and, still eerily silent, extended his right hand.
He was offering a handshake.
Bishmal’s eyes widened once again. It looked like a simple display of sportsmanship from a fellow contestant, but it caught him completely by surprise.
The obvious conclusion was that this was a trap, but Bishmal’s touch could easily be lethal, so offering to shake his hand was an absurd move even if there was some ulterior motive behind it.
Neither Bishmal nor the audience understood what Albert was doing, but there were four in the venue who did. The Masters who had fought him in the preliminaries knew that he would do this once the match began.
Their responses to the handshake offer had been split between attacks and hesitant acceptance, but the reality was that this was no trap. It was not any kind of offensive maneuver at all.
“...Sure.”
After a bit of thought, Bishmal accepted the offer and shook Albert’s hand.
Albert’s grip was like steel, lacking the fleshiness of a normal human hand, but the handshake ended without anything happening.
Instead of following it up with some attack, Albert simply turned around and headed back to his starting position. He seemed wide open to any attacks, and Bishmal felt like he could win by just launching his ult right now.
However, he’d decided against it.
Partially this was because Bishmal was hesitant to attack someone from behind, but it was also the danger sense he’d honed as a ranking duelist that stopped him.
Bismal had the feeling that if he attacked now, it would be over for him.
Nothing beyond the handshake happened as the two returned to their starting positions.
This was the true beginning of the duel, and Albert assumed a fighting pose...
“Hm...?”
...but seeing it made Bishmal raise an eyebrow.
Based on what he’d heard, Albert’s combat style was wide-scale bombardment using heavy weaponry. He possessed immense firepower that he used to defeat countless monsters, and this was common knowledge thanks to an accidental recording of his battle against a UBM.
He was also known to use weapons—MVP rewards included—in duels like this.
However, Albert now stood before him unarmed and empty-handed.
“No weapons?” Bishmal asked. Albert only shook his head in response.
Most would think that he was mocking his opponent, implying that he wouldn’t even need weapons to defeat him—but Bishmal noticed that behind his sunglasses, Albert’s gaze was fixed on the audience.
Does he think that his attacks could destroy the barrier? Bishmal wondered. With the duels he’d fought in Caldina and Gideon, Albert was certainly familiar with arena battles by now, and all such battles typically worked the same way.
However, Gideon’s barrier had recently been broken by a UBM. Albert might have been limiting his use of weapons on account of that.
Putting aside the question of whether that was a valid concern, there were two conclusions to draw from that fact.
First, Albert might just be that confident in his firepower.
And second, he was truly concerned about any possible harm he might cause to the audience, however unlikely that was.
It wasn’t just weapons either—Albert hadn’t activated any of his Embryo skills either.
He’d deliberately chosen to fight without his biggest strengths.
“I see,” Bishmal mused. It was almost insulting, but he wouldn’t tell Albert to change his strategy. Albert was free to choose how he wanted to fight, after all.
And so, Bishmal would do the same.
He charged toward Albert. However, he wasn’t using Surt’s firepower. Just as his opponent wasn’t using his weapons, Bishmal faced Albert with nothing but his ability as a Power Wrestler.
He wanted to match Albert’s handicap, but that wasn’t the only reason...
I just can’t bring myself to go all out if my opponent isn’t! Bishmal thought. That’s why it’s better if I just hold myself back too, get on the same page mentally, and fight him from there!
Thus, their duel assumed a form rarely seen in battles between Masters. No weapons, no ranged attacks, no unique powers—just pure hand-to-hand combat.
The audience was surprised to see Bishmal fighting differently than usual, but Albert remained silent and unfazed. He dealt with all of Bishmal’s punches and grapples using martial arts techniques that were mechanical in their precision. The eyes behind the sunglasses darted around, seeing all of Bishmal’s attacks and blocking them with optimal movements.
The high stats granted by a Superior Job were perfectly complemented by his excellent technique.
“Not bad!” Every time their bodies clashed, Bishmal could feel how high Albert’s STR and END truly were. While his friend Riser was a fellow hand-to-hand combatant, his AGI focus made fighting him quite different from this.
This guy’s AGI’s about the same as mine, but he’s got a good eye! Bishmal thought as he used Reveal to check Albert’s stats. He’s seein’ through and punishin’ everything I do!
Each and every response to Bishmal’s attacks was more or less perfect. Albert’s defense in hand-to-hand combat was unmatched, but it seemed to come at a cost to his offensive capabilities. He focused so much on repelling attacks that he neglected to take advantage of openings that even Bishmal himself noticed.
As a result, the tiny amount of damage that did manage to get past Albert’s defenses was starting to chip away at his HP.
Bishmal had the upper hand, which filled the audience with excitement, but Bishmal himself was growing increasingly uneasy.
He’s gettin’ faster!
Albert’s responsiveness to Bishmal’s attacks was only improving. It was as though he was learning the way Bishmal moved, allowing him to further optimize the speed and precision of his defense.
If this continued, Albert would eventually be able to see through everything Bishmal did, at which point Albert could go on the offensive and defeat him.
King of Termination was a job that emphasized attack power, and yet Albert was operating like an endurance build.
“In that case—” Bishmal cried, and jumped in front of Albert.
Albert tried to counter this, but the eyes behind his sunglasses widened a bit. His vision was briefly obscured by a burst of flame—and when it subsided, Bishmal was no longer right in front of him.
When the fire was gone, the only thing Albert could see was Bishmal’s shirt, now removed.
He looked around to search for the man himself, but...
“Got ya!”
...before Albert could turn his head, Bishmal locked it in place with a choke hold from behind.
Bishmal’s equipment was custom-made to match Surt’s powers that allowed him to turn him into flame. Even though they were made of cloth, they had built-in skills that allowed them to turn into fire whenever the wearer did.
Bishmal had just used that property of his equipment in combination with Instant Wear to remove the flaming shirt, then leaped backward, leaving the shirt behind. Since it was no longer equipped, the skill that transformed it into flame deactivated, turning it back into cloth.
Bishmal had basically used a double smoke screen of fire and cloth, allowing him to drop into a low stance position and slip behind Albert to grapple him from his blind spot.
“Hngh!” Bishmal grunted as he put all his strength into his grip, and with one strong move, snapped Albert’s seemingly unbreakable neck.
Albert’s head was now twisted over ninety degrees to the right. This usually conferred the Broken Cervical Vertebra status effect, which didn’t kill instantly, but was an injury-based debuff that quickly led to death.
Case in point—Albert’s HP was falling at an astonishing rate.
The unusual, gruesome conclusion to the duel filled the arena with not just cheers, but also shrieks of terror.
However, Bishmal didn’t even think of letting go of Albert.
His senses told him that this wasn’t over yet.
Despite the situation, Albert still wasn’t making a sound. His neck still broken, he moved his eyes to glance at Bishmal’s right arm before using both hands to grab it. Bishmal still showed no sign of letting go.
Eventually, Albert’s HP dropped to critical levels. Like a countdown, it was fast approaching 0. It soon reached the point where he was just 1 HP away from death, but then it stopped...
“α: Dubhe.”
...and, at the same time, the name of a skill resounded throughout the arena.
The voice was clear, as if the damage to Albert’s throat were absolutely nothing. This was the first time he’d said a word since the duel began, and doing so caused light to engulf his body.
A moment later, two things occurred.